IOGKF Newsletter

September 2010

IOGKF NETHERLANDS GASSHUKU WITH YAMASHIRO SENSEI

By: Francesco Melita – IOGKF Netherlands

In June 2010, IOGKF Netherlands hosted IOGKF International
Chairman, Sensei Katsuya Yamashiro, for a National Gasshuku.
Yamashiro Sensei’s take on Goju-ryu techniques left all members
with a much deeper knowledge of how the body should work as well
as lecturing about the body, mind & spirit becoming one...

The weekend
with Sensei Yamashiro left a deep impression on me. The new
things were not very startling, but the way he taught, his
intense and inspiring involvement with the substance and his
ability to name and explain every minute detail; like why
your big toe is in different positions at different stages sums
up his incredible knowledge for me.

The structure of the lesson was
well thought out. He explained that the outside of your feet
should be right and parallel to each other. To achieve
this, your feet should point slightly inwards. He showed us that
there were many people who looked to the ground during an
exercise. Once you see the ground, it means you’re doing it
wrong. Always keep your hear right up and look out for yourself.
Also when establishing your weight on your forefoot that the
foot was expanded when stopped; That you have to imagine that
you're a 100m runner at the beginning of a race. If your weight
on your heel, you're not quick off the starting blocks.

Then he spent a lot of attention to the
"Koshi" (the hip). Yamashiro Sensei said that all movements
should be made from the Koshi - The Koshi comes first and then
the movement. He called it "riding the Koshi” and was able to
demonstrate that greatly. Also, he laid great emphasis on
breathing and how you need it in the master of your own body.
You do this by focusing on your breathing and your tanden. This
gives you a soul moving.

At one point we were very much moving in
to shallow breathing. He said it was like a soldier and that the
king has already left him behind. The king comes first, the
first breathing, then your tanden, then the movement. To achieve
this, he had us stand in mokso. Eyes are closed, you focus on
your breathing, pay attention to your tanden.

Its his advice: do mokso, every time you
notice that you're a soldier and not a king and that you forgot
your soul, only in your head.

On the second day, all these points again
repeated, but we did an exercise in pairs: We did an exercise where you had to stand
facing each other ,while a jodan tsuki was aimed straight for
the head, one had to do a step back while the other moved
forward and vice versa. The aim was to coordinate. Ensure there
is contact; That you can feel the other person.
And then some people started frantically
terrible and Yamashiro Sensei had to laugh. He interrupted the
exercise and said, “you still want to be friends?”

Finally he stressed that Goju-Ryu Karate
never assumes an initial attack. If you are confronted
with an attacker, let him first feel your attitude and use no
words towards him to make contact, use your spiritual vigor. If
others do not attack, it's good, you're apart, that is the
spirit of Budo. Only when the attacker attacks do you go and
defend against attacks.
He was also very impressed by a windmill
that he had visited while in our country. He said: "You have
invented this wonderful windmill.
You have beautiful, strong and big
bodies. I envy you. You have power, you have to exert much
effort and you will also be learning to ride your Koshi '.
To sum up, what a great Karate teacher!